The fellows of the trilogy

I realize it sounds like an adventure-fantasy movie... but it's the best I can do tonight.

Proceedings wrapped up pretty early today. After dealing with the hearsay issue, we heard testimony from John Light and Greg Strong, although it only lasted about an hour. Thom Bennett is unavailable until tomorrow, so the "trilogy" as they've been referred to, won't be complete until then.

The Crown seemed to bolster and then deflate its case with the two witnesses.

Light testimony in a nutshell:

*He got a call from Bennett in August 2006. Bennett said he was calling from his office and that Strong and O'Brien were present. He asked him to come over to the O'Brien campaign, but Light said he was committed to the Kilrea campaign. Bennett then covered the phone for a few seconds (30 to be exact), came back and said, "don't worry about Terry. He’s going to be dropping out of the race soon, he’s been offered something.” Later, he got a call from Strong and when he again expressed his commitment to Kilrea, Strong said,"between you and me, Terry won’t be in the race much longer, he's being offered something through the party. Dimitri Pantazopoulos is working on an offer that I think Terry is going to accept.” He clarified it was a federal appointment of some sort.

Strong testimony in a nutshell:

*Bennett called Light from Bennett's kitchen and O'Brien was not present. He says no discussions were ever held within the campaign about an offer to Kilrea other than talk about his website. He says the only time the NPB was brought up was in casual conversations with others about what Kilrea would do after he withdrew from the race. He testifies those conversations never occurred with O'Brien or Bennett. He says at the time Kilrea "was shopping himself around" and everyone had an opinion about what he would do.

The examination and cross-examination was quite brief... the whole affair took only an hour for both witnesses.

It's critical for the Crown's case that this evidence be admissible. If the testimony is permitted, both Hutchison and Edelson will be able to re-examine the witnesses.

Lisa MacLeod and David Penner take the stand tomorrow after Bennett.

Funny moment of the day: When Hutchison referred to an exhibit that was labeled YYY he said it sounded more like a love song than an exhibit.